Fuel injection devices



Jan. 27, 1970 R. T. J. SKINNER FUEL INJECTION DEVICES 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed April 12. 1968 Q Q fi i E m Jan. 27, 1970 R. T.'J. sK|NNR 3,

FUEL INJECTION DEVICES Filed April 12, 1968 2 Sheets-Sheet z R.T.J .SKINNER United States Patent O 3,491,738 FUEL INJECTION DEVICES Robert Thomas John Skinner, Kenilworth, England, assignor to Joseph Lucas (Industries) Limited, Birmingham, England Filed Apr. 12, 1968, Ser. No. 720,789 Int. Cl. F02m 39/00 U.S. Cl. 123-139 2 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A fuel injection device for a multi-cylinder engine having a parallel sided cavity in a body, a distributor disc rotatably mounted in the cavity with its side faces adjacent to those of the cavity, a shuttle in a cylindrical bore in the body, an inlet communicating with passages at opposite sides of the distributor disc respectively, further passage means in the body cavity side faces respectively, said further passage means being arranged to communicate with the passages at opposite sides of the distributor disc when the disc is at different angular positions two passages affording communication between the further passages in the body and the ends of the bore containing the shuttle and a bore in the disc, whereby the further passages can communicate with outlets in the body, so that as the disc rotates the shuttle alternately discharges fuel from the cylinder ends to the passage means in the body through the bore and to the outlets in turn.

The object of the present invention is to provide a fuel injection device in a convenient form for a multi-cylinder internal combustion engine.

According to the present invention a fuel injection device for a multi-cylinder internal combustion engine comprises, in combination a body, defining a cavity having a pair of parallel side faces, a distributor disc rotatably mounted in the cavity with its side faces adjacent to the side faces of the cavity respectively, a driving shaft connected to the disc whereby it can be driven by the associated engine, a shuttle, mounted in a cylindrical bore in the body, means for varying the permitted movement of the shuttle, an inlet in the body communicating with passage means at opposite sides of the distributor disc respectively, further passage means in the body cavity side faces respectively, said further passage means being arranged to communicate with the passage means at opposite sides of the distributor disc respectively when the disc is at different angular positions respectively, two passages in the body affording communication between the further passages in the body and the ends of the bore containing the shuttle respectively, the disc having a bore extending through it and being capable of becoming aligned with outlets in the body when the disc is at different angular positions respectively, the outlets being intended to communicate with fuel injection nozzles or the engine, the arrangement being such that as the disc is rotated the ends of the bore containing the shuttle alternately communicate with the inlet through the passage means at opposite sides of the disc and through the further passage means in the cavity side faces of the body respectively and passages in the body and as one end of the bore is so communicating, the other end communicates with an outlet through said further passage means and the bore in the disc, the outlets being fed in turn from the device.

A specific example of the invention will now be de-' scribed with reference to the accompanying drawings in a device construction in accordance with this invention,

FIGURE 2 is a cross-sectional view on the line IIII in FIGURE 1, and

FIGURE 3 is a view on the line III-III in FIGURE 1.

In an example of the invention there is provided a fuel (for instance petrol) injection device for use on an internal combustion engine, the engine having, in this instance, four cylinders.

The device comprises a body 10 arranged to be mounted on the engine and containing a disc 11 rotatable at half engine speed, for a four stroke engine, by means of a shaft 12 which is, in this example, the shaft which normally drives the rotor of an ignition distributor the casing of which is indicated at 13. This ignition distributor is mounted on the body 10 so that its rotor can be driven by an extension of the shaft 12.

The body 10 is made up of two plate-like parts 10a, 10b bolted together and separated by an annular part 100 to define a cylindrical cavity to receive the disc 11. The disc 11 is slightly thinner than the annular part 10c so that there is provided a running clearance between the disc 11 and two parallel faces which are formed by adjacent faces of the plate-like parts 10a, 10b of the body.

An inlet 14 for fuel is formed in the body and this communicates with an annular groove 15 in one side face of the disc 11, near its centre, and a similar groove 16 on the opposite face communicates with the first mentioned groove 15 through openings 17 extending between them, through the disc.

The grooves 15, 16 have respective portions, one of which is seen in FIGURE 2 and is indicated by 15a. These portions extend radially outwardly with respect to the axis of the disc and are in radial alignment with one another and with a bore 18 extending through the disc though this bore is nearer to the edge of the disc 11 and does not communicate with the portions 15a.

The two parallel faces in the body parts 10a and 1012 are formed with respective grooves 19, 20. Each groove 19 or 20 has a pair of diametrically opposed radially inwardly extending portions, one such pair being shown in FIGURES 2 and 3 and indicated by 20a and 20b respectively. The inner ends of these portions are at the same radial distance from the disc axis as the outer ends of the radially outwardly extending portions 15a in the disc.

The grooves 19, 20 in the faces in the body, also have respective pairs of radially outwardly extending portions 20c and 20d disposed at from the inwardly extending portions 20a and 20b and these outwardly extending portions, at their ends, are at the same radial distance from the disc axis as the bore 18 in the disc 11. In radial alignment with each of the radially outwardly extending portions 20c, 20d in the faces of the body, is an outlet hole 21 in the opposite face of the body, these holes, of which there are four all together, being intended to cornmunicate with fuel injector nozzles in the engine and each pair of these holes are, of course, disposed at 90 from the outwardly extending portions 20c, 20d on the same face but are at the same radial distance from the axis of the disc as these portions.

When assembled in the body, the two faces of the parts 10a, 10b are identical but since they are facing towards one another, the pattern of holes and radially outwardly extending portions are disposed at 90 from one another. Thus the outlet holes 21 in one face are radially aligned with the pair of radially outwardly extending portions 20c, 20d in the other face and vice versa.

Communicating with the grooves 19, 20 in the faces of the body 10, are passages 22, 23 leading to respective opposite ends of a stepped cylindrical bore 24 in the body 10 extending through the three parts 10a, 10b, 10c, this bore 24 having its axis generally parallel to the axis of the disc 11 and being spaced from the edge of the disc. The portion of the cylindrical bore 24 extending through the annular part 100 of the body is of smaller diameter than the ends. The ends of the cylindrical bore 24 are closed by plugs 25, 26 respectively, both plugs being adjustable and having stems which extend into the portion of the bore in the annular part 10c to form respective stops for a shuttle 27 mounted for sliding movement in the portion of the bore 24 in the annular part 100 of the body.

Two means for adjusting the positions of the plugs 25, 26 are provided, that for adjusting the plug 26 being a control mechanism indicated at 28 and forming the subject of our co-pending British patent application No. 14659/ 64. It is necessary to have some means for moving the plug 26 or both of them in response to inlet manifold pressure in the engine so that the quantity of fuel injected can be varied with the load and/or throttle setting of the engine. This requirement is met by the mechanism of the above mentioned application but other mechanism fulfilling the same purpose or being additionally or alternatively responsive to other conditions or requirements, can be substituted. The plug 25, in this example, is adjustable by means of the screw 29.

In a portion of the body 10 surrounding the shaft 12 but axially spaced from the disc 11 is a chamber containing a feed pump indicated generally at 30 for fuel to the inlet previously mentioned. This feed pump may take any convenient form but in this example it is described and claimed in the complete specification of our co-pending British patent application No. 13801/64. It will, however, be appreciated that the feed pump may alternatively be separately driven and may be disposed in any convenient place on the engine.

In operation of the device, the feed pump ensures a supply of fuel under pressure to the grooves 15, 16 on opposite sides of the disc 11 and as the disc rotates, the outwardly extending portions, one of which is a, of these grooves, in turn, communicates with the four inwardly extending portions, one pair of which are a, 20b of the grooves in the faces of the body 10, which are spaced apart by 90, two being on each body face. Each such communication subjects the appropriate grooves 19 or 20 in the body to inlet fuel pressure. Since the grooves 19, 20 are permanently in communication with respective ends of the cylindrical bore 24, this is also subjected to inlet pressure thus forcing the shuttle 27 to move to the opposite end subjected to inlet pressure, its movement being limited by the plugs 25, 26 at the ends of the cylindrical bore 24. The opposite end of the cylindrical bore from that subjected to inlet pressure will have been filled with fuel by previous communication of the groove 19 or 20 in the body with the inlet at an earlier stage in the operating cycle and this fuel will now be forced into an outlet hole 21 to a nozzle in the engine through the appropriategroove 19 or 20 in the body and through the now aligned hole 18 in the disc 11.

As the disc 11 rotates further, the inlet 14 communicates through the appropriate groove 19 or 20 and passage 22 or 23, with the end of the cylindrical bore 24 from which a charge of fuel has just been delivered. This causes the shuttle 27 to move to the opposite end of the bore 24 to discharge fuel into an outlet hole 21 to a nozzle, which has become aligned with the hole 18 in the disc 11.

It will readily be appreciated that the device can be adapted to supply fuel at timed intervals to an engine having any other number of cylinders simply by providing the appropriate number of outlet holes 21 at equal distances from one another, at opposite sides of the disc and further providing an appropriate number of radially inwardly and outwardly extending portions to the grooves 19 and 20 so that communication may take place between the inlet and the cylindrical bore 24 and between that bore and the outlet holes 21 at the correct intervals.

Furthermore the device may be modified by the substitution of the grooves 15, 16 in the disc 11 by a suitable gallery fed with fuel from the inlet 14, either between the shaft 12 and the disc 11 itself or between the disc 11 and the body 10.

The disc, in a modified form, is made in two halves and O ring seals are provided in the bores between the two halves. The 0 rings are in compression and as wear takes place, the disc expands so that there is a substantially constant running clearance and leakage of fuel between the disc faces and the faces in the body is minimised. It will be appreciated that in this arrangement, the two halves of the disc are identical.

Having thus described my invention What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A fuel injection device for a multi-cylinder internal combustion engine and comprising, in combination, a body defining a cavity having a pair of parallel side faces, a distributor disc rotatably mounted in the cavity with its side faces adjacent to the side faces of the cavity respectively, a driving shaft connected to the disc whereby it can be driven by the associated engine, a shuttle mounted in a cylindrical bore in the body, means for varying the permitted movement of the shuttle, an inlet in the body, annular passage means at opposite sides of the distributor disc respectively, openings in the disc whereby the annular passage means communicate with one another, the inlet communicating with said annular passage means, further annular passage means in the body cavity side faces respectively, said further annular passage means being arranged to communicate with the annular passage means disposed at opposite sides of the distributor disc respectively, when the disc is at different angular positions respectively, two passages in the body respectively affording communication between the further annular passages in the body cavity side faces and the ends of the bore containing the shuttle, the disc having a bore extending through it and being capable of becoming aligned with outlets in the body when the disc is at different annular positions respectively, the outlets being connectible in use with fuel injection nozzles in the engine, the arrangement being such that as the disc is rotated, the ends of the bore containing the shuttle alternately communicate with the inlet through the annular passage means in the disc and through the further annular passage means in the body cavity side faces respectively and the passage in the body, and as one end of the bore is so communicating, the other end communicates with an outlet through said further annular passage means and the bore in the disc, the outlet being fed in turn from the device.

2. A fuel injection device as claimed in claim 1 in which the annular passage means at opposite sides of the distributor disc have respective radial outward extensions communicating at predetermined angular positions with respective radial inward extensions of the annular passage means in the body cavity side faces, the further annular passage means in the body cavity side faces having further respective outward radial extensions communicable with the bore in the distributor disc and aligned with the outlets respectively in the body.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,126,709 8/1938 Alden l23139.17 2,624,284 l/l953 Straub 123139XR 3,320,938 5/1967 Homfeld et a1 123-139 LAURENCE Mv GOODRTDGE, Primary Examiner 

